This is an extremely misleading headline. If you read the article, it clearly states that the proposal would increase costs by $80 to $11,150 per household, which is a far cry from what the headline says.
Still, it's yet another argument for leaving Suburbia and Urbania. Move to the country. Put in a well (though a rural house will likely already have one.) Control your water supply by owning it.
February 27, 2024
Pentagon is panicking over Biden’s proposal that would increase water costs by $10,000 per household
by Tiana Lowe Doescher
WashingtonExaminer.com
Without so much as a whisper of pushback from Congress, the White House is bulldozing forward with a regulatory proposal that could cost the average household up to $10,000 extra in water costs. But it’s not only President Joe Biden‘s campaign that is scared of this latest forefront of the president’s green agenda — Biden’s own Pentagon is panicking over the proposal.
The World Health Organization now recommends that governments limit polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever plastics” that are resistant to breaking down in either the environment or the human body, at a level of 100 parts per trillion. This is the same level limited by the European Commission. Japan set a temporary PFAS limit of 50 ppt in 2020, and Sweden limits most PFAS at an average of 90 ppt. As far as more restrictive measures go, Canada is trying to lower its limit to 30 ppt, while Denmark is trying to ban PFAS in specific, isolated sectors such as in paper food packaging.
And then, there is America’s Environmental Protection Agency, which is trying to reduce its advisory limit of 70 ppt to a hard limit of 4 ppt for two prevalent types of PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, for all drinking water.
In other words, Biden would decrease the Obama administration’s suggested PFAS limit to a legal maximum by 94.3%. The new standard would be 4% of the WHO’s recommendation and less than one-tenth of 1% of that of Australia and New Zealand.
According to a Black & Veatch consulting report commissioned by the American Water Works Association, the EPA’s proposed standards would increase water costs by anywhere from $80 to $11,150 per year for each household. Contrary to the EPA’s estimate of $1 billion extra in annual costs added to water utilities, the AWWA argues the new standards would amount to $3.8 billion in new annual costs.
But according to the Pentagon, it’s not just household budgets that are at risk if this proposal succeeds — it’s also our national security.
“[The Department of Defense] is reliant on the critically important chemical and physical properties of PFAS to provide required performance for the technologies and consumable items and articles which enable military readiness and sustainment,” read a Pentagon report sent to Congress in August. “Losing access to PFAS due to overly broad regulations or severe market contractions would greatly impact national security and DoD’s ability to fulfill its mission.”
According to the DoD, PFAS are found in its infrastructure related to “information technology, critical manufacturing, health care, renewable energy, and transportation,” including within batteries, semiconductors, and most weaponry. Even before the EPA’s new standards come into effect, the Pentagon estimated it would require $39 billion to clean up PFAS contamination past the Obama-era recommendation. In total, nearly 3,000 private wells by 63 military bases are considered contaminated, with some combined levels of PFOS and PFOA at 10,000 ppt — or 2,500 times higher than what the EPA would allow under these new standards.
For reference regarding how uniquely stringent the proposed PFAS standards are, the EPA limits arsenic in water at 10 parts per billion and cyanide at 200 parts per billion. Thus the EPA is asking that taxpayers pay tens of billions of dollars to bring the prevalence of some plastics to a level less than a fraction of a percent of what we allow for literal poisons.
The White House Office of Regulatory Affairs is now reviewing the final rule. If it pushes the standards through prior to the Congressional Review Act deadline of May 22, this baseless standard will become law without so much as a peep from our so-called lawmakers.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2890130/pentagon-panicking-biden-proposal-that-would-increase-water-costs-household/
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